Cake and Bake show London 2016

Back in July my closest friend asked if I was up for going to the Cake and Bake show in London. I didn’t have to hesitate and later that month she booked two tickets which happened to be free, we planned our route a week prior to going and at last the 7th October came around.

It was the fourth annual show which is held in London and Manchester during October and November respectively, sponsored by Argos.

We spent a good 4 hours in ExCel and managed to cover the entire network of stalls and demonstrations. Stalls wise, there was a great mix with something for everyone, from natural cold pressed Date snacks to elaborate cupcakes to build your own ice cream stall. There were also non-edible stands, either demonstrating high tech blenders that could make soup and ice cream at the touch of a button and other stalls that included wine tasting days and a VR experience on a rollercoaster 🤔 a lot of the stands had cakes designed by the company on display too, including a Christmas themed stall that had a revolving completely edible Christmas scene carousel.

There were two cake exhibitions, one that the public could judge and one set on the opposite side of the venue that were just on display, I think they were created by professional bakers although I could have that completely wrong. The amateur baking exhibition was split by 3 categories a general cake, birthday cake and cupcake display which all had the theme of myths, legends and fairy tales and the competition was fierce. Some of the cakes looked too good to be true, one in particular which has since won the main competition sponsored by the food network was called Enchanted and it was unbelievable, everything down the wrinkles in her hands and the individual lashes on her top eyelid looked so realistic that it could have passed for a real woman as it was to the scale of a human head. My favourite display which I voted to win was the Neverending Story display, it has such a personal meaning to me as I loved the film growing up and also one of my dogs resembles Falcor, the dragon from the film.

Jane Lashbrook – Enchanted

My favourite, just look at that little face 🐶

Best in show winner, Zahir Rathod – Dragon Warrior

Close up, this cake was stunning. The dragon even had little beads of “saliva” coming from his open mouth

There were also famous guests of honour that featured Great British Bake Off winner 2015 Nadiya Hussain and TV Chef Rosemary Schrager. Unfortunately we managed to miss both the live demonstrations that Nadiya covered but we did catch her during her book signing, honestly the land of TV and HD cameras does not do her justice, she’s a beautiful woman that’s extremely graceful and carries herself very well.

On a personal level, I’m actually very nervous travelling on trains and get really bad anxiety at the thought. My friend on the other hand, knows the underground like the back of her hand and contents of her fridge so it was really comforting to know she was there and helped with the journey. Agreeing to go to this event gave me an excuse to use public transport with something to look forward to at the end of it.

I’ve posted the rest of the photos in an album on my Facebook page for the blog, publicly available here.

All in all it was a great day out and we’re definitely planning to attend again next year, also I’m thinking of going to a nail or beauty exhibition as well next year so if any of you would like to meet me, then would be your chance!